The market for electronic medical records and medical images has grown at a rapid pace over the past decade, and this growth is expected to continue its rapid ascent over the coming decades. The sheer volume of electronic medical records and medical images has mushroomed in the past 10-15 years. However, the movement of medical records and radiological studies from hospitals and imaging centers to physicians' offices, and even among physicians' offices, is a ubiquitous problem. Current solutions include the physical couriering of the records or films or point-to-point electronic connections.
Currently, digital medical images are not routinely transported outside of a secure intranet environment (e.g., over the Internet) for two principal reasons. First, medical images are, in most cases, too large to easily email. Second, under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), measures must be taken to provide enhanced security and guarantee privacy of a patient's health information. These requirements cannot be satisfied through routine email or conventional Internet connections.
As a result, if a medical record or imaging study is to be sent from an imaging center or hospital to a referring physician's office, a physical film or compact disc (CD) must be printed and hand delivered. This is expensive, inaccurate, inefficient and slow. There does not exist today a simple electronic means of moving imaging studies, or other medical or similar records, among unaffiliated sites.
Therefore, in light of the present methods available for moving medical records, images and other personal information, a need exists for a system and method for providing a secure central interface for accessing and moving those records among authorized parties.